Internal clock set before dawn is A-OK

Though I relish the first five titles I have given myself, the truth is, my wife and daughters count on me for many things, but the first and foremost duty I have taken on is that of wake-up service. I am the full-service concierge of Chez O'Rourke

Most households have one person who is always the last asleep and the first awake. I have served this role from the beginning. I like it. Makes me feel needed.

I get up every morning at 4. I do this without an alarm clock and a distinct inability to fall back to sleep.

This would absolutely shock any high school teacher or college professor who had the misfortune of having me in one of their morning classes back in the '80s. I slept through more oral presentations, paper deadlines, quizzes, tests and final exams than a narcoleptic with a Nyquil addiction. I was never what you would call a "morning person."

I was no better in my early 20s. I was working in nightclubs and spent far too many nights staying up until sunrise. The upside was that I saw a lot of sunrises. The downside was I missed plenty of sunsets because I was still asleep from staying up all night and watching the sunrise. That all changed back in 1997.

In 1997, I began a three-year stint as a morning-drive talk-radio host here in San Antonio. We went on the air at 5 every weekday morning. (Actually 5:07, after news, traffic and weather, but they expected us to be in our chairs, headsets on, by 5.)

Overnight I exchanged my 3 a.m. bedtime for a 3:30 a.m. wakeup call. To say it was a shock to my system is an extreme understatement. A week into my new job I asked my co-host, Brad Messer, a very important question: "When do you get used to this?"

Messer is a wonderfully talented man. He served as my radio mentor during my short-lived broadcasting career and continues to serve as my friend.

His intelligence, wry wit and entertaining style are sorely missed on the Alamo City airwaves. I can still picture his sardonic grin in response to my question.

"You don't," Brad said with the insight of a man who worked in radio his entire life. "It just screws up your life." Then, after a slight pause, he added, "Forever."

Right he was. From that moment on, my body clock was permanently reset. I had transitioned from night person to early-morning person. In a weird way, I like it. I get more done between 4 and 6 in the morning than I used to accomplish all day. It also allows me to give my family their wakeup calls.

The chain has been broken. My daughters have never slept through any exam, quiz or project due date. Even when I give them an extra five minutes.